Mini Gaga, the YouTube Sensation

Maria Aragon, whose cover of a Lady Gaga single took off on YouTube, on ‘The Ellen DeGeneres Show’ in February.

When Maria Aragon, an 11-year-old from Winnipeg, Canada, posted a homemade video of herself performing “Born This Way” in February, she wasn’t expecting much to happen.

But the video quickly caught the attention of Lady Gaga herself and skyrocketed Ms. Aragon to fame. To date, it has been viewed more than 40 million times.

Now, Ms. Aragon is moving to the next stage: recording her own album in Manila with Star Records, a leading recording company in the Philippines, that is due to be released Aug. 22. Ms. Aragon’s parents are from the Philippines.

It’s all a major leap for a young girl who says she dreams of becoming a female version of the late Michael Jackson.

Her ascent to YouTube fame took off on a Wednesday night in February, when she recalls posting the video online. Lady Gaga saw it and was so impressed with her rendition of the song that she retweeted a link to the video — which then received more than 11 million hits in one week. Soon Ms. Aragon got a call from the American pop star inviting her to perform in a sold-out concert in Toronto in March. They performed the hit single as a duet about an hour into the show at the Air Canada Center.

Her newfound fame led to an appeal from Jeng Guiyab, a manager who had worked with other Filipino singers in Canada. After another singer’s concert, Ms. Aragon’s parents asked Ms. Guiyab to help her become a recording artist. Soon after, she had Ms. Aragon on a flight to Manila to meet with record companies there.

“I have never been on a plane before this,” Ms. Aragon said in a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal. “I got to try so many different foods.”

She said she has been making homemade music videos and posting them on YouTube since she was seven years old — 74 in total.

Ms. Aragon discovered an affinity for music when she was three or four, when she used to watch her dad singing karaoke. Learning to play the piano, she added, also came naturally.

“I play by ear, I just listen to the song, and I try to figure it out,” she said. When she was on “Good Morning America,” she was given piano lessons. Before that, she didn’t know anything about chords or keys, although she says she is working on that.

Her debut record will have five tracks, including a cover of the tune that made her famous on YouTube, an original Filipino song titled “Bubuksan Mo lang Ang Puso,” a movie theme song called “You’re My Home” for an upcoming Star Cinema movie, and a charity song, “One Hope, One Dream” for an organization called Answering the Cry of the Poor. For the album, she is working with Vehnee Saturno, an award-winning Filipino composer. Ms. Aragon said the songs will reflect her age — no love songs.

She will return to Canada in September, when her life will go back to normal — sort of — as a grade six student at the Isaac Brock School. In between she’ll do a photo shoot for Ralph Lauren’s fall catalog and will travel for concerts.

Her long-term ambition, not surprisingly, revolves around music, she said. “Music is the reason why I am here in Manila. It is something I experienced all my life and something that I have most confidence in, which I want to do for the rest of my life.”

Comments (2 of 2)

Poor decision on her parents' part. Now, rather than being able to properly develop her talent, she'll probably be stuck singing glorified karaoke covers of Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey songs for the next twenty years. Perhaps the occasional Celine Dion.
Oh, you, Filipino music industry~